Psychedelic Furs Story - Part II

"The Wall of Sound"

In Part I the Furs had at last acquired a permanent drummer and record company patronage. Vince quickly showed he had much needed commitment that previous drummers had lacked. Intensive rehearsals resulted in more new songs being written and the old songs taking on a whole new dimension.
After several weeks of rehearsals Vince made his first live appearance with the Furs at the Nashville on Aug 26th ’79. The transformation was staggering. Suddenly, from being a band among many the Furs were "the" band to see, "the" name to drop. Inevitably the music journalists began to appear. Melody Maker was the first mainstream paper to cover the Furs in an article written by Chris Bohn, closely followed by Giovanni Dadamo (Sounds) and Paul Du Noyer (NME).
During the month of September the Furs flaunted themselves to a more diverse audience by playing support to the Only Ones and Toyah at the Lyceum and co-headlining with The Boys at the Electric Ballroom. Now the time had come for the Furs to venture outside the capital, and so a nation-wide club tour was planned to coincide with the release of their first single on the Epic Label, "We Love You/Pulse". The tour did not turn out to be as widely successful as was expected. Mainly due to the fact that the tour booking agency responsible were claiming to have booked dates that never existed!
However, the single was rapturously received in the music press : Especially by Tom Robinson in NME, who said that it was one of the classic singles of 1979 and Chris Bohn in Melody Maker who said "Richard Butler" achieves more in three minutes than F.Scott Fitzgerald could in 300 pages".
Unfortunately "We Love You" was not well received by DJ’s (John Peel being the only exception) who still had a prejudice against any new groups that were in any way associated with punk or new wave. Another factor that hindered the band was the "psychedelic" tag. Despite all this the tour limped along with dates scheduled, cancelled, re-arranged, cancelled and again re-arranged, finally culminating in an appearance at the Electric Ballroom on Nov 10th. This was the bands biggest headliner yet and it attracted a capacity audience - including journalists from as far afield as the USA and Japan as well as a full contingent on the home front. Included among the reviews that appeared the following week was the following : "At last a band to write about" (Jane Suck, Sounds).
Unfortunately "We Love You" was not well received by DJ’s (John Peel being the only exception) who still had a prejudice against any new groups that were in any way associated with punk or new wave. Another factor that hindered the band was the "psychedelic" tag. Despite all this the tour limped along with dates scheduled, cancelled, re-arranged, cancelled and again re-arranged, finally culminating in an appearance at the Electric Ballroom on Nov 10th. This was the bands biggest headliner yet and it attracted a capacity audience - including journalists from as far afield as the USA and Japan as well as a full contingent on the home front. Included among the reviews that appeared the following week was the following : "At last a band to write about" (Jane Suck, Sounds).
Unfortunately "We Love You" was not well received by DJ’s (John Peel being the only exception) who still had a prejudice against any new groups that were in any way associated with punk or new wave. Another factor that hindered the band was the "psychedelic" tag. Despite all this the tour limped along with dates scheduled, cancelled, re-arranged, cancelled and again re-arranged, finally culminating in an appearance at the Electric Ballroom on Nov 10th. This was the bands biggest headliner yet and it attracted a capacity audience - including journalists from as far afield as the USA and Japan as well as a full contingent on the home front. Included among the reviews that appeared the following week was the following : "At last a band to write about" (Jane Suck, Sounds).
Unfortunately "We Love You" was not well received by DJ’s (John Peel being the only exception) who still had a prejudice against any new groups that were in any way associated with punk or new wave. Another factor that hindered the band was the "psychedelic" tag. Despite all this the tour limped along with dates scheduled, cancelled, re-arranged, cancelled and again re-arranged, finally culminating in an appearance at the Electric Ballroom on Nov 10th. This was the bands biggest headliner yet and it attracted a capacity audience - including journalists from as far afield as the USA and Japan as well as a full contingent on the home front. Included among the reviews that appeared the following week was the following : "At last a band to write about" (Jane Suck, Sounds).
One interesting footnote to the "We Love You" tour was that the Furs were accused of racism for the only time in their career. This happened at Portsmouth Polytechnic when some members of the student oriented audience misinterpreted the lyrics to "Blacks", not realizing that the offending Warhol quote was intended as sarcasm.
Immediately following the tour a photo session resulting in the first album cover was arranged followed by additional dates in Hull and Birmingham. November ended with the Furs deciding to get back to their roots by playing two nights in Nashville. The only worthwhile thing that came out of those shows was the picture that subsequently appeared on the back cover of the album. Although well intentioned, the move back to a smaller venue proved to be a mistake with far more people turning up each night than the place could hold. This in turn led to frayed tempers from everybody concerned. The two shows were marred by sound problems, compounded when, on the first night, Vince was hit by flying glass. On the second night the support group joined in when their manager punched Duncan backstage. As a result of these shows the Furs decided that in future they owed it to their fast growing army of fans to play only such venues as could safely accommodate everybody who wanted to see them.
On Dec. 5th the band went into RAK Studios in St. John’s Wood, London, to commence recording their debut album with producer Steve Lillywhite (who had been watching the Furs progress for some time). The songs scheduled for the album were basically those contained in the Furs live set and were deliberately recorded to give a live feel. Only "Wedding Song" was actually written in the studio.
After 2 and a half weeks the album was finished with everybody seemingly very happy. The tracks were: Side One: India, sister Europe, Imitation of Christ, Fall Side Two: Girl’s Song, Wedding Song, Blacks/Radio, Flowers
After deliberating over Christmas it was decided that the album would need some re-touching. So on Jan. 7th, 8th and 9th - 1980 - the Psychedelic Furs went back into the studio (without Steve Lillywhite who was otherwise engaged with Peter Gabriel) to re-mix. This resulted in different versions of "Imitation of Christ", "Fall" and "Blacks/Radio", the exclusion of "Girl’s Song" in favour of "We Love You" and "Pulse" and the swap of the Steve Lillywhite version of "Flowers" for a version produced by Ian Taylor during the "We Love You/Pulse" sessions.
After deliberating over Christmas it was decided that the album would need some re-touching. So on Jan. 7th, 8th and 9th - 1980 - the Psychedelic Furs went back into the studio (without Steve Lillywhite who was otherwise engaged with Peter Gabriel) to re-mix. This resulted in different versions of "Imitation of Christ", "Fall" and "Blacks/Radio", the exclusion of "Girl’s Song" in favour of "We Love You" and "Pulse" and the swap of the Steve Lillywhite version of "Flowers" for a version produced by Ian Taylor during the "We Love You/Pulse" sessions.
1980 started badly for the Furs when Duncan sustained a broken jaw after being attacked in a night club. Unfortunately the Furs were committed to playing a show at the Electric Ballroom on Jan. 19th (which ironically was a replacement for a show - supporting Hawkwind - that had been cancelled). On the pretext that the show must go on, Duncan spent the two weeks still remaining before the show learning to play all his sax parts on the synthesiser. Although the sound didn’t suffer too much generally, songs like "Sister Europe" and "Fall" didn’t quite manage to attain their usual standard.
As advance promotion of the next single, "Sister Europe/****", a tour supporting Iggy Pop was arranged commencing at Aylesbury Friars on Feb 2nd. It was apparent from the outset that the Furs were not happy just to support Iggy, they wanted to steal the show - which most night they did. The tour only lasted a week and a half but took in most parts of the major cities in Britain, culminating at the Hammersmith Palais in London.
Immediately prior to the release of "Sister Europe" on Feb 14th the Furs made a move from the Epic label to CBS though remaining as part of the same company. This move was made only days before the release of the single resulting in a very small number of copies already pressed on Epic failing to be called in. These copies are now extremely rare with perhaps fewer than 10 in existence. At this time a video was being recorded at Shepperton Studios directed by Don Letts (later of Big Audio Dynamite fame). The video captured the band for posterity playing in a black studio with a black plastic floor, inset with unusual statues that could have been a landscape for an alien planet.
With high expectations of imminent chart success the Furs went into the studio again on Feb 18th to record a second John Peel session. But "Sister Europe" did not achieve the success it deserved, due once again to a lack of effective radio play. This time only Mike Reed joined John Peel with support on national radio. Again the press reviews were ecstatic, including single of the week in Melody Maker.
The Furs quickly shrugged off their disappointment at this setback and a headlining nation-wide tour was booked to run through March. The Beautiful Chaos Tour, as it was called, was intended to give additional live support to the bands long awaited debut album, entitled "The Psychedelic Furs". The tour proceeded from strength to strength until it reached Eric’s in Liverpool. The police had been looking for an excuse to close Eric’s for several months without any success, so when the Furs played they decided to raid the place. As soon as the band left the stage about 60 policemen, women and dogs burst in, ransacked the club and searched everyone. Richard was still backstage when they took a dislike to him and planted drugs in his pocket. This resulted in Richard spending the night in a police cell and being summoned to court several times over the next six months, until finally being acquitted due to the fact that the arresting officers had just been successfully prosecuted for corruption and perjury! Which goes to show that there is still some justice in the world.
The final date of the tour was at the Lyceum in London, on March 23rd, a sell-out for a now triumphant band with a Top Ten album. To make the show even more memorable a top-class support bill had been arranged. These were Echo and the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, A Certain Ratio and Manicured Noise. But when the reviews appeared the Furs were universally criticised. Their time as press darlings was over.